Prof Gyampo is on the EC because he was disappointed not giving that position – P. K. Sarpong

It is high time Professor Ransford Yaw Gyampo ended his unholy fixation on the Electoral Commission in general and the Chairperson, Jean Adukwei Mensa, in particular. His consistent attacks of the Electoral Commission without justifiable or cogent reasons are giving meat to the speculations that he indeed had his eyes fixed on the EC’s top position or a deputy and that his failure to land on any of the two jobs has pained him so much so that he would go to every ludicrous limit to denigrate the Electoral Commission.

Contributing to JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, February 25, 2023, the Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, in his characteristic fashion, sought to disparage the Electoral Commission with the assertion that the activities of the EC are viewed with suspicion. He further said that the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission must work hard to clear suspicions pertaining to its activities by members of the public.

He went on to claim that there are serious trust deficits of the activities of the Electoral Commission by the opposition National Democratic Congress. If these developments are not addressed by the EC to engender public confidence ahead of the next elections, there could be serious repercussions.

His claim that the EC is viewed with suspicions by a section of the general public, especially, the opposition NDC does not have any relationship with the facts on the ground. The NDC have been belligerent in their accusations that the EC was in cahoots with the NPP to rig the 2020 presidential elections. They petitioned the apex court of the land, the Supreme Court.

They were allowed to prove the accusations levelled against the Electoral Commission. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah told the court that they had no evidence to prove their case, and this torn their petition apart. How can one honestly say that the NDC is justified in being suspicious of the EC when they fell short of proving their assertions?

The NDC has been consistently refusing to attend the Inter-Party Advisory Committee’s meetings even though the Electoral Commission has been inviting them to attend these meetings. Every time there was an IPAC meeting, the EC wrote to the opposition party to invite them to attend such meetings. How do you stay out of IPAC meetings, meetings you are invited, but come out here to raise suspicions about the EC’s work?

Gyampo and his friends must know that IPAC is not forced on any political party. IPAC, let me emphasize, is voluntary. No one is compelled to attend IPAC meetings, and so if the National Democratic Congress feels reluctant to avail themselves at such meetings, no one is to blame. The NDC are not attending IPAC meetings by choice.

The Electoral Commission and the National Identification Authority have given ample information to the general public about their preparedness to work together to get a credible register for the next elections. The NIA can, within three weeks register the few people who are yet to be captured by the system for the EC to use same information for purposes of the 2024 elections.

Strangely enough, the very body, the Electoral Commission which Gyampo and his cohorts claim is not trustworthy by the opposition NDC is the same outfit the NDC asked to conduct their National Executives’ elections for them, an exercise that was carried out by the EC successfully. Is it not strange that the demonic manner they have labelled the EC did not find expression in the work the electoral body did for the party?

The NDC is set to conduct its parliamentary and presidential elections in May this year. The party will rely upon the same Electoral Commission they are discrediting for the conduct of these elections. How a Commission that is viewed with suspicions and distrusted by the NDC would become the same entity that will conduct their internal elections for them is something that sane minds cannot grasp.

Professor Ransford Gyampo and the NDC’s suspicions are, therefore, a figment of their own imaginations. Nothing, in terms of practicality, supports these wild claims that the Electoral Commission is viewed with suspicions. Gyampo and the NDC have no tangible reasons to substantiate their claims that the EC is viewed with suspicions. He should, therefore, desist from these needless assertions when same cannot be buttressed with proof.

P.K. Sarpong, Whispers from the Corridors of the Thinking Place.